Originally Posted by
Dougdrvr
An F/A-18 friend of mine came back to our campsite later and said" the era of F/A-18 air dominance is over. Every fighter pilot on the field must be hanging his head."
Its all about the man in the seat. I know plenty of Hornet guys (and seen the footage) with gun kills on Raptors. (It was over a long time ago)
Concord was built to go fast in a straight line, one trick pony. Couldn't turn within the state of Texas though. Building a jet to operate in the wide regime that the Raptor does, whole new set of engineering challenges.
Lots of jets like the Flanker and Typhoon will touch hit 1.5. To cruise around at 1.5+ not using afterburner is a talent only the Raptor can claim right now.